St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-12-31

for the lew grains 1uoy now r
for their sustenance. When you ABUSE any
creature of God you strike Its creator ana
Won insult the Christ who, though He might
have heen welcomed into life by princes,
and taken his first infantile slumber
amid Tyrian plush and canopied couches,
and rippling waters from royal aqueducts
dripping into basins of ivory and pearl,
chose to be born on the level with a cows
horn, or a camers hoof, or a dogs nos
tril. that he might be the alienation OF
brutal suffering as well as the redeemer
of man.
Standing then as imagine now | do,
in that Bethlehem night with al infant
Christ on the one side and the speeches.
creatures of God on the other, | cry,
Look out how you strike the rowel into
that horses side Take Off that curbed
bit from that bleeding mouth. Remove
that saddle from that raw back. Shoot
not for fun that bird that is too small for
food. Forget not to put water into the
cage of that canary. Throw out some
crumbs to those birds caught too far
north in the winters inclemency. Ar
rest that man who is making that one
horse draw a load heavy enough for
three. Rush in upon that scene where
butterfly and grasshopper Drive not off
that old robin, for her nest is mother s
cradle and under her wing there may be
three or four prima donnas of the sky
in training. And in your families and in
YOUR schools teach the coming genera
ton more mercy than the present genera
ton has ever shown and in this marvel
Gus Bible picture of the Nativity, while
IN than1 tho anppI
Show them also the camel, and while
they hear the celestial chant let them
also hear the cows moan. No more did
Christ show interest in the botanical
world when he said, "Consider the Ill
lies" than he showed sympathy for the
ornithological when he said. Behold the
fowls of the air. and the quadrupedal
world when he allowed himself to be
called in one place lion and in another
place lamb. Meanwhile, may the Christ
of the Bethlehem cattle pen have mercy
on the suffering stock yards that are
preparing diseased and fevered meat Tor
our American households.
Behold also in this Bible scene how on
that Christmas night God honored child
hood. Christ might have made His first
visit to our world in cloud as he will
descend on his next visit in cloud. In
what chariot of illumined vapor he
might have rolled down the sky escorted
by mounted cavalry with lightning OF
drawn sword Elijah had a carriage of
fire to take him up; why not Jesus
carriage of fire to fetch him down:
Or, over the arched bridge of a
rainbow the Lord might have descended.
Or Christ might have had his mortality
built up on earth out of the dust OF
garden, as was Adam, in full manhood at
the start without the Introductory fee
bleness of infancy. No, no. Childhood
was to be honored by the advent. tie
must have child's light limbs, and a
child's dimpled hand, and child's beam
ing eve, and a child's tlaXen hair, and
babyhood was to be honored for all time
to come, and cradle was to mean more
than a grave. Mighty God. May the
reflection of that one child's face be
seen in all infantile faces Enough have
all those fathers and mothers on hand if
they have a child in the house. throne,
a crown, sceptre, kingdom under
charge Be careful how you strike him
across the head, jarring the brain What
YOU say to him will be centennial and
millennial, and hundred years and a
thousand years will not stop the echo and
re-echo. Do not say, at is only child
Rather say, 1T is only an immortal 1t
is only masterpiece Of Jehovah. 1t is
only being that shall outlive sun and
moon and STAR and ages quadrillennial.
God has infinite resources and he
can give presents of great value, but
when he wants to give the richest posi-
BILE gift to household He looks around
all the worlds and all the universe and
then gives child. The greatest present
that God ever gave our world He gave
about 1887 years ago and He gave it on
Christmas night, aid it was of such
value that Heaven adjourned for recess
and came down and broke through the
clouds to look at it. Yea, in all ages
God has honored childhood. He
makes almost every picture "a fail
ure unless there be child either
playing on the floor, or looking
through the window, or seated on the lap
gazing into the face of its mother. 1t
was a child in Naaman's kitchen that
told the great Syrian warrior where he
might go and get cured of the leprosy,
which at his seventh plunge in the Jor-
dan, was left at the bottom of the river.
1t was to the cradle of leaves in which a
child was laid rocked by the Nile that
God called the attention of his
tory. 1t was a sick child that
evoked Christ's curative sympathies.
1t was a child that Christ set in the
midst of the squabbling disciples to teach
the lesson of humility. We are Informed
that wolf and leopard and lion shall be
vet so domesticated that little child
shall lead them. A child decided Water
loo, showing the army of Butcher how
they could take short cut through the
fields when, if the old road had been
followed, the Prussian general would
have come up too late to save the desti,
MES of Europe. 1t was child that de:
cided Gettysburg, he having overheard
two Confederate generals in converse
ton in which they decided to march fol
Gettysburg instead of Harrisburg, and
this, reported to Governor Curtin, the
Federal forces started to meet their op.
ponents at Gettysburg. And the child
of to-day is to decide all the great bat
ties, make all the laws, settle all the des
TIMES and usher in the worlds salvation
or destruction. Men, women, nations
all earth and all Heaven, behold the
child! Is there any velvet so soft as {
child's cheek? Is there any sky so blue
as child's eye? Is there any music Sc
| sweet as the child'S voice? Is there any